Early bird arrival offers hope for Sandhill cranes' future

Sandhill cranes have returned to their winter quarters in San Joaquin County earlier than ever.

Alex Breitler

Sandhill cranes have returned to their winter quarters in San Joaquin County earlier than ever.

And while no one can firmly say why, it might be a good sign for this iconic species nearly slaughtered out of existence during the Gold Rush.

Lodi birder Esther Milnes, a longtime California Department of Fish and Game docent, was driving home Saturday from a Bay Area concert when she spotted eight to 10 cranes in a field of grain stubble just north of Eight Mile Road and east of Interstate 5.

"I was 99.999 percent sure," she said.

Another birder confirmed early arrivals at Staten Island, in the Delta. And Kathy Grant heard them honking as they flew over her Lodi home Monday.

"It was uncanny," she said. "I heard them and thought, 'Man, what was that?' Within three minutes an email was coming saying they're showing up early. I was like, 'I really did hear them. I'm not hallucinating.' "

Gary Ivey, with the International Crane Foundation, confirmed that this was the earliest arrival on record. It's often the second or third week of September before the birds show up, and even later for those winging all the way from Alaska.

What's going on?

"I can only speculate," Ivey said.

But his theory goes something like this:

Before the Gold Rush, sandhill cranes often spent summer months in the Sierra Nevada, where they would breed before flocking down to the Valley for the winter.

Unregulated hunting by gold miners changed all of that. Eventually there were five pairs of breeding cranes left in the entire state, Ivey said.

That's why, in more recent decades, most of the cranes wintering in the Central Valley have been coming from Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Now, as crane populations stabilize and recover, it's possible they are once again breeding more extensively in the Sierra Nevada, Ivey said. Cranes have been documented near Truckee, and Ivey said there are rumors of cranes as far south as Bridgeport Reservoir, east of Sonora Pass.

That southward spread means a short commute to Delta feeding grounds. It might take a typical crane only about an hour to cross over the mountains to the Valley.

That easy migration, combined with drought conditions in the western United States, might explain the sandhill cranes' August appearance in the Valley this year.

"We know there are a lot more birds breeding closer to the Delta than there used to be," Ivey said.

Cranes roost in shallow water, and some of their favorite spots are not yet wet. Ivey said the cranes spotted by Milnes are probably roosting at night at someone's small dairy pond or reservoir. The early arrivals may be more susceptible to predators like coyotes and raccoons if water isn't made available soon, he said.

The sighting of just a few sandhill cranes, more than two months before Lodi's festival in their honor, had so-called "craniacs" aflutter.

Problem is, no one knows where the birds spotted by Milnes are actually nesting.